Abdullah said that it has become necessary to stop relying too much on non-renewable sources of energy like coal. The project has been handed over to IIT-K to promote research in solar energy and bring it closer to the people.

The minister said that his ministry has been promoting solar kitchen in a big way, keeping in view the fact that solar kitchens are much in use at religious places like Vaishno Devi, which are thronged by thousands of devotees every year.

He said that a sum of Rs 570 crore have been allocated for generating solar energy in Laddakh to encourage cooking through solar power. Solar power is used to cook food for around 50,000 people in Golden Temple.

He said that under the Jawaharlal Nehru Solar Mission which was inaugurated by Prime Minister in January, one hundred megawatt of power could be generated through solar energy by 2013 and over 20,000 megawatt by 2022.

“Through wind energy, we will be generating more than 13 megawatt of power, he said while talking about the ambitious plans of his ministry in near future.

He also mentioned that the tidal energy could be of a considerable help in generating power and that the scientists were making efforts to generate power through this form of energy.